The following description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
Grilling is a cooking style that is especially popular in the United States. But grills are not particularly portable or easy to set up, in part because the framework for the grill is large and fastened to the grill in a way that makes assembly and disassembly difficult.
Attempts have been made to design grills that are easy to assemble after unloading from shipping containers. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,602,017 to May describes a grill comprising a firebox assembly, which includes a firebox base and a firebox hood, and a cart assembly. The cart assembly includes a large number of pieces: support assemblies, hinges, and linking members. However, assembly still requires numerous steps, and some parts must be screwed together. Moreover, the firebox assembly cannot be collapsed to reduce the volume of the disassembled grill and cart during storage and shipping.
All publications identified herein are incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application were specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.
Another potential solution disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,316,837 to Malumyan is to mount the grill on a foldable stand. However, even in the folded configuration, the wheels and handle of the grill take-up extra space. Moreover, the stand requires two hands to set-up, and in at least some circumstances, one-handed assembly is desirable.
Still another potential solution is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,065,734 to Elliott, which discusses a portable grill having collapsible legs (albeit in a reverse manner). In addition, U.S. Patent Publ. nos. 2006/02257 to Rinaldo and 2004/0020482 to Chen describe similar concepts. However, all of these assemblies fail to prevent attachment of a grill unless and until the cart or supporting structure is secured.
Thus, a need exists for a portable, collapsible stand-alone grill cart having safety features to prevent unintentional collapse.